tonight on "nightline," candidate inc? the presidential campaign has begun. but it turns out that some of the most famous contenders are hoping you'll give them more than just your vote. has running for president become another way of getting rich? brian ross investigates. plus, growing up tatum. he was one of hollywood's iconic leading men. but behind closed doors, life was far from glamorous. >> i was 13. i tried to commit suicide twice. >> now, tatum and ryan o'neal are sorting out their dysfunction on camera. >> i was blind. and, soar or splat? it's the most expensive show

ever mounted. the previews, a disaster. but bono told me, "spider-man" the musical was fixed. and tonight, it finally opens. what happened? we'll show you. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," june 14th, 2011. >> good evening. we begin tonight with politics. last night, the 2012 republican presidential hopefuls held their first nationally televised debate. representative michele bachmann stole much of the night's thunder by declaring she was, in fact, running for president. then, today, former utah governor john huntsman said he would formally jump into the race next week. but one candidate who has made news early and often is former speaker of the house newt gingrich. tonight, brian ross with a stunning investigation on how running for president could

benefit gingrich, whether he wins or not. brian? >> reporter: cynthia, we assume that people running for president are doing it to actually win the job. but this year, in a number of cases, being considered a possible presidential candidate seems to be little more than a savvy marketing ploy, a proven method for a big payday. and that is now the question facing many candidates, including newt gingrich, whose entire top staff resigned last thursday, convinced he was not serious about running. ♪ >> reporter: in presidential politics, winning is no longer everything. >> there's a heck of a business out there for expoliticians that have run. >> reporter: like sarah palin, who has turned her political celebrity into a multimillion dollar business. with a reality tv show, as well as books and paid speeches. a lot to give up. >> well, i think palin's faced a real choice, because she's got a

very lucrative career going right now. >> reporter: or al gore, who now runs a multimillion dollar media empire. >> many candidates that have run for president have gone on to have fulfilling careers. >> reporter: but a republican campaign strategist watching this year says for some, running for president seems mostly about creating a valuable brand name. >> to me, it's kind of a game that makes their brand have some value. >> reporter: and no one seems to have realized that more than newt gingrich, who has built an empire around his political persona, allowing him to lead a life of luxury. in the last five years, he's used donations to a political group he founded for millions of dollars in private jet travel, though he says he lives on a budget. >> all i'm telling you is, we are very frugal. we, in fact, live within our budget. we owe nothing. >> reporter: gingrich's frugal life style including a million dollar home in suburban

washington and lavish spending with his wife on jewelry from tiffany's. and just this month, gingrich left the campaign for a cruise with his wife in the greek isles, the event that led to the mass resignation of his staff. part of his empire includes several for profit businesses. here, he and his fiwife produce film. >> we have a moral obligation. >> reporter: this week, gingrich released his 24th book, with many of his upcoming campaign stops bubbling as marketing events for the book and movie, raising more questions about the true intentions of his campaign. >> if he's being driven by book sales and movie openings and things like that, i mean, that doesn't fit into a traditional campaign. and like it or not, that's the way he's wanted to go and he's going to give it a try. >> reporter: also raising questions from independent watchdog groups is the operation of a charity gingrich founded, called renewing american

leadership, real. its website contained ads for gingrich's books, taken down after we asked about them, and posts his opinion on political issues. >> it's not clear that it is a charity. you have an organization that looks like he's mixing public purpose and his own private political interests. >> reporter: the charity's fund-raising letters attack president obama and also promote gingrich's book. in fact, records obtained by abc news show the charity bought gingrich's books to give to those who send in donations, with no discount in the price, according to the charity's new director, pastor jim garlow. >> my concern is, is there any way we can get them cheaper? and we didn't. >> reporter: and an audit showed more than $200,000, which the charity says was used to pay his then press secretary, rick tyler, who was also the director of the charity million march,

made the decision to buy the gingrich books with charity funds. you don't think it all adds up to being just too intertwined, the political campaign? >> no. >> reporter: intertwine the charity and his career? >> what's so intriguing about you and the media, you can't believe people have pure moti motives. it's so difficult for you. you assume everybody has evil motives. >> $200,000 to your company? >> reporter: gingrich refused repeated requests to be interviewed about his empire and had little to say when we caught up with him this morning in new hampshire after a speech. >> cover the speech. cover 14 million -- >> just asking a question -- >> and i'm trying to tell you. i'm not concerned about that. the american people aren't concerned about that. try covering the speech. >> sir, are you not concerned about the fact that you're charity you founded has given $200,000 to your own company? >> reporter: the new spokesperson for gingrich said

gingrich had done nothing in violation of the law and that our report was little more than some inane accounting issue. about theal bagss are similar to what happened in ji1997, when gingrich was centraled by the house and fined for using a charity to advance his political career. cynthia? >> thanks, brian. just ahead, father and child reunion? for more than 25 years, they've been estranged. now ryan and tatum o'neal are trying to make amends. on camera. on a top secret project. it was a challenge that nobody had undertaken before. and we didn't know whether we could do it. when kennedy announced we're going to go to the moon, that was a thrilling proposition. they said, if you could start a computer over from scratch, what would you do? i thought, wow, this could really change things.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with cynthia mcfadden. >> she has been famous all of her life. tatum o'neal won an oscar when she was just 10 years old. still the youngest person ever to win. but much of her life has been marked by sadness. a mother who was unable to care for her. two suicide attempts by 13. a drug addiction to heroin. but tonight, tatum o'neal, who has written a new book, items a remarkable story of teaming and forgiveness. how she got sober and went in search of her movie star father, the man she had barely seen for 25 years, in tonight's "nightline" interview.

>> reporter: she was the little girl with the gritty voice and the big attitude in "paper moon." tatum o'neal. >> i want -- >> reporter: and her real life father, ryan o'neal. handsome and charming, played opposite her. >> so? it's a big town, ain't it? we can do better than 20s. >> reporter: that was then. this is them now. >> temper. the reason that we didn't speak for so long -- >> no it isn't. >> what is it? >> farrah. >> reporter: laying bare decades of family dysfunction in a document about to premiere on own. >> this is about trying to shut a door and open another one. i don't know if it's going to work. i'm going to try. >> reporter: it took 40 years to get here. until she was 8, tatum lived

with her mother and little brother. it was chaotic to say the least. her parents had split and her mother, also an actress, was a drug addict. but her kids lived with her anyway. >> we went to the bathroom on the floor. we did a lot of crazy things. >> reporter: there were days, many days, when you weren't fed. when you were locked in the house. when you played with fire. >> it was a hard time. i lived a hard time. there was, you know, tremendous beatings and no food and a 15-year-old boyfriend with my mom who beat the hell out of me. so, i did a lot of running away. i ran away all the time. and i think i was just waiting for my dad to save me. please save me, please. >> reporter: her father finally did come to her rescue. already a star from his role in "love story." they went everywhere together. the dashing ladies man and his adorable, if tough, little girl. >> get your things. we're leaving. >> now? >> reporter: and it was he who suggested she play the part of addie. after the life she had been

living, acting, she says, seemed easy. but offscreen, she was struggling to please her volatile father. >> i want to make sure my dad wasn't mad at me. and sometimes he was. >> reporter: why? >> well, because i missed a take or 30 takes or something. i was 8 years old. >> reporter: her fareless performance won her an oscar. >> all i really want to thank is my director peter and my father. >> reporter: but neither parent was there. >> my dad was making a movie in ireland at the time. >> reporter: your mother? >> you know, it's funny, cynthia. you know, i don't know. and i definitely don't want to get emotion al. but i don't know where my mom was that night. i don't know. if she was maybe in the hospital or maybe -- by then, she wasn't even allowed, really, to be next to me. because things had really

separated because now it was my dad's girl. >> reporter: by age 13, tatum says she was using drugs and had been molested several times by family friends. >> i had already tried to cut my wrists. i was 13, i tried to commit suicide twice already. >> reporter: so what did you father say about cutting your wrists? >> well, we're just not going to get into that. >> reporter: he said you weren't doing it the right way. >> that's in the book. it's a memory that i have of -- of a very, very, very toxic life. >> reporter: ryan o'neal denies he ever said that. and in the past called tatum's claims about him malicious lies. what we do know for sure, when tatum was 15, her father moved out of their home to live with his new love, farrah fawcett. she was 22 when she married john mcenroe. they had three kids.

after their divorce, she became addicted to heroin, she said. in and out of rehab, she hit rock bottom when in 2008, a drug bust put her back in the news. pretty much lost my life to my addiction. >> reporter: it wasn't until she got sober, a year ago, what she resolved to try to reconcile with her father, who she had barely seen in 25 years. and she decided to take the cameras along. >> a lot of tough. you want me to bring up drugs or the hitting? >> good-bye. good-bye. >> it is really hard for me to understand why you're still trying with him. i have to be honest. >> it's okay. >> reporter: why? >> you know, it's funny. i sort of took the journey with my dad, with this show, to see what would happen. and it didn't necessarily make us together, it didn't necessarily push us to this happy ending. it just sort of got us going in a dreshgs of a conversation. >> i'm sorry.

she needed me. >> we needed you, too. >> it was confusing. >> it was horrible. >> reporter: there's pretty shocking moments. >> yeah, because it looks like he hasn't changed. >> how is your sobriety? >> it's going good. >> i have a bottle of tequila upstairs with your name on it. >> stop it. he certainly would not be making the jokes, because that's how serious this is. >> reporter: you are sober and working hard for your sobriety and for him to then opportunity you about drinking and offer you tequila seems to me to be an act of hatred. >> i think he hates himself, not me. i think that's his own issue. >> reporter: what do you think you're going to get from him? >> i don't think i'm going to get anything. how about that? i think he's going to get something. i think he's going to get some kind of companionship that he doesn't have. in his life. >> reporter: so you want to take care of him? >> that's what i'm going to be doing, probably, you know, in the next, however many years we have. >> reporter: if it were a movie,

we'd demand a happy ending. for reality, we'll have to wait and see. tatum items more of her story in her new book, "found: a daughter's journey home," which is on sale today. her own documentary premieres sunday. stay with us. that starts off ordinary can become romantic just like that. a spark might come from -- a touch, a glance -- it can come along anywhere, anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment's right even if it's not every day. tell your doctor about your medical condition and all medications and ask if you're healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. [ man ] do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache.

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with over 16,000 nationwide. take a step forward and chase what matters. a controversial broadway musical opened tonight. "spider-man." nine years in the making. we've been following the troubled road to this $75 million behemoth for months now. so, how was it? we just got back from the opening. after six production delays and five serious accidents, it was a night that many people thought would never happen. the opening night of

"spider-man: turn off the dark." opening night drew a crowd. matt damon was there. so was cindy crawford, liam neeson and steve martin. and that's the back of president clinton's head right there. it has been a bumpy road to opening night, with just about everybody mocking the show, including grover. ♪ to the sky >> reporter: even the real bono got in on the act at this week's tony awards. >> when i first saw the tony awards on our schedule, i just kind of assumed that we'd been nominated. >> reporter: critics broke broadway protocall and published scathing reviews of the show months before tonight's opening. i've never read quite so horrific reviews. things like, "the new york times." i may rank among the worst ever

made. "the washington post." shrill, insipid, mess. what did you think? >> that's the sort of stuff we were saying backstage. i mean, seriously. >> reporter: and, so, in march, producers shut "spider-man d" dn for three weeks to rework the show. while audiences give the new version a standing ining ovatio it opened in previews, tonight was the long test. the long-awaited opening. guests like president clinton liked it. >> i thought it was fabulous. >> reporter: the first reviews came out, and they were harsh. "a bloat eed monster," said one. and "the new york times" said "no longer the ungodly mess it was in february. it's just a bore." but audiences often defy critics. and spidey's beaten many adversaries armed with more than mere opinion.